ESCONDIDO MAN JUDGES WESTMINSTER’S ‘BEST IN SHOW’

Michael Dougherty stepped onto center stage in Madison Square Garden last Tuesday night after one of the longest journeys of his life, through flight cancellations and a snowstorm, to fulfill his duty of naming the best dog in the country.

Thanks to a fierce blizzard that descended on the Northeast, Dougherty and his wife, Michelle, endured a harrowing trip from their home in Escondido to Midtown Manhattan, where he had been scheduled since early 2012 to judge “Best in Show” for the Westminster Kennel Club’s annual competition.

The ordeal started at 4 a.m. Friday, Feb. 8, when the telephone rang and an automated voice message explained that their flight into New York City had been canceled.

“I looked at a map and said, ‘We can go with a southern route,’” he recalled. “D.C. looked pretty safe — a lot of rain, but no snow.”

Ultimately, the couple flew into Washington, D.C., via Dallas-Fort Worth with plans to make the rest of the trip by rail.

In Washington, they were informed that even Amtrak was out of commission, but Dougherty had to see for himself. The couple finally made it onto a train bound for New York City, and he settled in to write the first of several speeches he was expected to give as the top official in one of the most storied sporting events on the planet.

“I have judged a number of best-in-shows, including on national TV … but I don’t think there’s anything that can top or match the 137-year legacy of this show, the oldest continuous sporting event (in the U.S.) other than the Kentucky Derby,” Dougherty told me last week. “It’s the Super Bowl, Miss America and the Kentucky Derby rolled into one, and I got to be the ringmaster.

“It was a long and arduous trip, but it was worth every second.”

I profiled Dougherty last summer, after it was announced that the canine world’s most prestigious ribbon would be his to hand out. At the time, he estimated that he had judged in more than 600 competitions across 20 countries in his 25-year career.

That staggering résumé is apparently what it takes to be called up by the Westminster Kennel Club.

Once the Doughertys had arrived in snowy New York late on Friday, they spent most of their time in a hotel room, sequestered and willfully ignorant of how the show was proceeding, which dogs were looking good.

“Our first event was the big cocktail party for the judges and dignitaries, and that was on Saturday night,” Dougherty told me. “The next night was the board of governor’s dinner at the yacht club, and that was absolutely formal — I had to give a speech at that one.

“On Monday, we had the day to ourselves,” he continued. “They didn’t want us to hear about any of the winners or goings-on through Tuesday. We were sequestered at our hotel, well away from the dog show people.”

On Feb. 12, the night of the live Best in Show broadcast, a car arrived to deliver Dougherty to the Garden: “They mic’ed me up, gave me a glass of water and said, ‘All right, we’ll call you in a few minutes.’”

From there, Dougherty would enter the ring with seven of the most beautiful and well-trained dogs in the world. His job was to choose one. “You’re absolutely splitting hairs,” Dougherty told me last year.

There was the American fox hound, the Portuguese water dog, an Old English sheepdog named “Swagger” and a bichon frisé that the USA Network announcers called “a beautiful little powder-puff of a dog.”

“They were all very, very good dogs — excellent specimens,” Dougherty told me.

As he worked with a trademark scowl of concentration on his face, the commentators called him “one of the great people in the dog-show world” and praised his decisiveness.

After 20 minutes of this, Dougherty awarded the runner-up award to Swagger, a 20-month-old novice in the sport, and chose Banana Joe, a jet-black affenpinscher, as the top dog.

As the first of his breed to win Best in Show — and as the winningest affenpinscher in history — Banana Joe earned a favorable write-up in The New York Times, which also quoted Dougherty from Tuesday night’s contest.

“I had seen him a few times outside the ring, but as a judge, I never had my hands on him,” he told me. “He was beautiful. He was a little dog, but he really owned the ring. I was told afterward that it was his last show — he’s retiring and going back to Holland.”

Dougherty, on the other hand, has no such plans.

It’s Chicago for him next week, followed by Seattle, Fort Worth and a trip to East Asia to help judge in several competitions.

Meanwhile, the Windsong Pet Resort that the Doughertys operate in North Escondido has been deluged with emails from clients and friends who watched Tuesday night’s national broadcast.

“I had talked to other judges who’ve done Best in Show, and they said the glow will not wear off for quite a while,” Dougherty told me. “It certainly hasn’t.”